


Morning Has Broken

by dragonofdispair



Series: Hymns of the Guiding Hand [3]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 04:39:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5034079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonofdispair/pseuds/dragonofdispair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Request from Rizobact: “…how did Trailbreaker react to Mirage choosing Hound and all but renouncing his nobility, given his attitude? How does he feel about all these changes?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Morning Has Broken

**Author's Note:**

> Riz was curious, and I realized that I'd perhaps been unfair to Trailbreaker in using him as an antagonist. So hopefully this clears up his motives as well as showing how he reacted to how it all turned out.

_Praise with elation, praise every morning_

_God’s recreation of the new day_

           —Eleanor Farjeon _“Morning Has Broken”_

.

.

“No Trailbreaker,” and despite the overwhelming _kindness_ in Prime’s voice (or maybe because of it), he flinched. “Mirage may be too injured to go through with the bonding right now, but he and Hound should have this time for themselves.”

Trailbreaker flinched again. “I —“ He stopped. What could he say? That, however gentle and private, was a _Primal decree_. He drew air through his frame to cool his wires, alleviating some of the stress. “Could you tell him —“ He stopped again. What did he want Prime to tell Mirage? _I’m sorry_ was all at once too much and not enough.

The truth was he was struggling. He’d had this… this _image_ of Mirage in his mind that he could no longer call up. It had been indelibly replaced by the injured, determined figure that had stumbled across the finish line and into Hound’s arms. He knew his thoughts, his warnings had been reasonable given what he’d known. _Mirage_ — the mech’s own chosen name declared him a liar, a deceiver, a false promise that could kill the unwary. But when applied to that very image of determined love he now had — and that image could not be anything but truth; all pretense stripped away by the Race — those words and warnings seemed cruel. His engine coughed in frustration and confusion, and a fan-belt whined.

Prime took pity on him. “I was prepared to dislike you,” he said mildly, as though he were any other mech and those words didn’t have the potential to completely undo a mortal’s existence, “for all the trouble you were giving my dear friend, but I knew as soon as we met there was no malice in you.”

And Trailbreaker _was_ undone. He stumbled back and Prime caught him. He was blind to it though. All he could see was Mirage, having not even managed a complete sentence before falling into stasis and being taken away by the medics. Too injured to go through with the bonding he’d fought for… Guilt welled. _He’d_ done that to Mirage. Hound would never have asked it. _He’d_ been the one who doubted, and who’d fostered that doubt in Hound. He was responsible for those injuries.

He shuddered. His engine coughed a sob, and somewhere he knew that this wasn’t like him at all, but Optimus had with just a few words taken him apart, peeled away his armor and exposed his spark. There had been no malice intended, but that did not mean the damage had not been done.

“ _Explorator_.”

Yes that was his name, the name Primus had given him. Explorer. Pathfinder. Trailbreaker. A brave name… 

Trailbreaker. Pathfinder. He should have been the _first_ to forge friendships where no other dared. Instead —

“ _Explorator. You_ ** _will_** _look at me._ ” Unable to disobey he looked up, out of his guilt and into Prime’s optics. Optimus smiled. “Good. That’s good. I was afraid I’d broken you for a moment there.”

He squirmed and realized how he was being held, almost cradled against the much larger frame, and his own heated in embarrassment. 

“I —“ he stopped and snarled in frustration. Everything was jumbled up in guilt and shame and twisted knots of jealousy — of Hound or Mirage, he didn’t even know — and self-loathing for his unintentional cruelty…

Prime just chuckled. “Mirage needed to do it for himself as much as to disprove your words.”

How the _Pit_ did that mech know just what to _say_? 

Embarrassment curled through his field again. Because he’s the _Prime_.

“I want you to answer a question for me Trailbreaker. True and unvarnished.” Prime’s EM field curled around them both, implacable in its kindness, _frightening_ in its love, _absolutely terrifying_ in its trust, and all Trailbreaker could do was send a weak flicker of affirmation through his own. The Prime had asked for truth and until he was released he could not consider falsehood. Not in thought, word or action. Not even of omission. Truth. “If it had been you, would you have risked it?”

There was no room in him for lies. No room even for confusion. Just honesty. Had it been him Mirage had tried befriending — tried loving — would he have taken the risk? “Yes.”

Prime smiled. “You were protecting your friend. Your _ward_. There is no shame in that.”

No there wasn’t.

And no shame in being wrong. 

Guilt popped like a delicate cleanser bubble, and he was left exhausted and clear headed.

And without the guilt, the shame, the unfettered _confusion_ he realized he was glad to have been proven wrong. His false vision of Mirage had been _proven_ false. Hound didn’t need protecting. And he was _elated_. 

Because that also meant he would never have to sit and watch while Hound’s spark was broken.

“That’s better,” Prime said, setting Trailbreaker back on his feet. “Until All are One.”

.

.

 _Until All are One_. 

It was an invocation of Primus, not just the fragmented God of the present, but the all-encompassing one of the beginning and end of time. We exist until All are One again.

Why did it sound so much like a suggestion, and not just a prayer?

He lurked in the doorway of the medsuite. Hound and Mirage were already inside, curled up so tightly together they gave the impression of being already bonded. Mirage’s optics didn’t flick on — there’d been some damage to them, he thought — but he wasn’t shy about comming him. _“Come in. Hound’s been concerned for you.”_

A curl of shame tried threading its way into his spark. But he shoved it away. He’d been there when Hound had come online, chosen to mentor this newspark and he’d done his very best. There had been only one lesson of his Hound had not taken to spark and seeing them there he was proud to have that one teaching disregarded. He shouldn’t have stayed away so long. _“Prime and I wanted to give the two of you the chance to celebrate.”_

Under normal circumstances, Mirage was too practiced at controlling his EM field for Trailbreaker to read him. It had been one of the things he had disliked about the noble, that deception was so effortless. But Mirage was still in a hospital bed and for that reason — or the one curled up with him like the puppy he and Trailbreaker had decided to name him for? — his control not what it usually was. Pleasure and surprise and a thin, thready sort of hope, and Hound finally noticed they weren’t alone, looking up at his friend and mentor. “Trails? You okay?”

“Perfectly fine.” It wasn’t even a lie. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure if he could ever lie again, or if the Prime had taken that from him with his terrifying trust. He stepped forward, allowing them to feel the truth behind his words in his own field. He was fine. More than fine he was elated for them. “Mirage,” he bowed slightly, nothing like the courtesy nobles offered one another, but he was not a noble and he didn’t even know the proper forms. So he kept it simple. “I was wrong. And if it’s possible, I would very much like to try being friends.”

Happiness bloomed in Hound’s field as welcome-hope suffused Mirage’s and they twined together into a beautiful whole. “I would like, very much, for us to be friends Trailbreaker.”

.

.

End

 


End file.
